NBA 2k13 Demo Impressions

Reave

Reave

Member
The demo just released on Xbox Live this morning and should be out later this evening on PSN. HUGE improvement over NBA 2k12, which I thought was a big disappointment compared to 2k11.

I only have a few complaints with the game:

  • Driving to the paint is a little too easy, even considering the superstar players' ability to do it in real life. I was able to blow past Chalmers with Westbrook without doing one crossover move tons of times. Too many easy baskets, but sliders will help.
  • Player models either look the same or downgraded. Durant's model looks like he's made of clay -- strange skin texture. And his face? Odd. Very odd. Westbrook's light mustache thing looks weird too; especially when he's moving his mouth.
  • Same crowd sounds as last year, save for a few new cheer bits. That lone drunk guy yelling "wooooooooooo" is back. Ugh.
  • Weird moment when Thunder was inbounding the ball and Westbrook suddenly did an animation like he was breaking away from a defender. He was by himself.
  • Lebron James might be a little too invincible. When I played against the Heat for a few games, Lebron missed MAYBE two or three shots in four games. I'm hoping signature skills don't make superstars too overpowered, to the point of unbalance.

As for things I like/love:

  • Thank God the dribble moves are back on the right stick. It makes player movement much easier/intuitive. I get why it's a controversial change, but I love it.
  • Euro-Step = so good.
  • Animations are as incredible as 2k Sports billed them. Collisions are amazing, animation-to-animation segways are sensational... man, I can go on and on.
  • Defense is WAY more gratifying this year; to the point where I actually enjoy it, which is a far cry from past NBA 2k games.
  • Loose ball fouls and off-ball fouls are alive!
  • I can't say enough over how improved the passing is. Still has a few quirks, but it's a huge leap forward for the series.
 
Models look downgraded? Huh, that's disappointing, haven't played 2K12 but might just wait til next gen, although 2K13 does look pretty good
 
Reznor said:
The demo just released on Xbox Live this morning and should be out later this evening on PSN. HUGE improvement over NBA 2k12, which I thought was a big disappointment compared to 2k11.

I only have a few complaints with the game:

  • Driving to the paint is a little too easy, even considering the superstar players' ability to do it in real life. I was able to blow past Chalmers with Westbrook without doing one crossover move tons of times. Too many easy baskets, but sliders will help.
  • Player models either look the same or downgraded. Durant's model looks like he's made of clay -- strange skin texture. And his face? Odd. Very odd. Westbrook's light mustache thing looks weird too; especially when he's moving his mouth.
  • Same crowd sounds as last year, save for a few new cheer bits. That lone drunk guy yelling "wooooooooooo" is back. Ugh.
  • Weird moment when Thunder was inbounding the ball and Westbrook suddenly did an animation like he was breaking away from a defender. He was by himself.
  • Lebron James might be a little too invincible. When I played against the Heat for a few games, Lebron missed MAYBE two or three shots in four games. I'm hoping signature skills don't make superstars too overpowered, to the point of unbalance.

As for things I like/love:

  • Thank God the dribble moves are back on the right stick. It makes player movement much easier/intuitive. I get why it's a controversial change, but I love it.
  • Euro-Step = so good.
  • Animations are as incredible as 2k Sports billed them. Collisions are amazing, animation-to-animation segways are sensational... man, I can go on and on.
  • Defense is WAY more gratifying this year; to the point where I actually enjoy it, which is a far cry from past NBA 2k games.
  • Loose ball fouls and off-ball fouls are alive!
  • I can't say enough over how improved the passing is. Still has a few quirks, but it's a huge leap forward for the series.
Click to expand...
I'm already fearing my player mode.Also did they fix the running speed on fast breaks?
 
Hoping they get back on track here. 2K12 was terrible. How is the three-ball? Tougher to hit? Felt that and dunks were much too easy in 2K12.
 
I enjoyed 2k12. Biggest issue for me was the broken speed. If that's fixed and the rest of the game improves I'm happy.

Do the control changes feel ok? I find I usually hate the new games (even in years where the changes are more subtle) for a few days until my brain relearns how to play.
 
thought it was better than 2k13 but there's not much to base it off

demo is 1qtr on default difficulty. the only reason to play it is to get accustomed to the new controls
 
Great about the right stick controls being back. Hearing about Lebron already makes me angry thinking about playing some of my friends .
 
Controls are on the right stick eh? That excites me, past NBA Lives felt easier to control and more intuitive, and I always wanted the 2K series to mimic that.
 
I really hope the Wii U version turns out well. I haven't gotten an NBA 2K game since 2K7. And I love the shit out of basketball, so this would definitely be a great return to basketball gaming.
 
Hmm.. I'm not liking how sluggish everyone feels. It feels like Lebron and Wade are running through a pit of molasses.

Also the crowd still looks really bad. Was hoping there would be some improvements there, it sticks out like a sore thumb next to the detailed player models.

Kinda blah overall.
 
The Mana Legend said:
I really hope the Wii U version turns out well. I haven't gotten an NBA 2K game since 2K7. And I love the shit out of basketball, so this would definitely be a great return to basketball gaming.
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I haven't bought a standalone game console since camping out overnight for a Wii and not sure I can justify the price of a console and $50–$60 games, but if you're doing the Wii U (and maybe I'll end up getting one to play Zelda and such) the controls certainly look like they could be useful.
 
meh, just gonna wait till next year on this one when it gets a graphic boost on the new consoles and we lose half the features again.
 
The M.O.B said:
meh, just gonna wait till next year on this one when it gets a graphic boost on the new consoles and we lose half the features again.
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That's kind of what the PC version is, except you only lose a few features and get the mod community. Usually cheaper too (haven't look at this year).
 
PotatoeMasher said:
That's kind of what the PC version is, except you only lose a few features and get the mod community. Usually cheaper too (haven't look at this year).
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It's $30 again this year. ($27 preorder on Amazon.)

And the only features you have lost in the past is the online, they claim to have actually fixed it this year.
 
How much fun are these games in single player and online with randoms? I would like to get it but I don't have any basketball-loving friends.
 
PotatoeMasher said:
Also DLC I think. This year the All Star pack won't be available[1].
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Oh yeah, forgot about the DLC's.

Last year some of the preorder stuff was in the PC version anyway, just had to be unlocked.

DJ Crimson said:
They always claim they fixed the online in every new game though.
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I know, but this time Ronnie did specifically say the benchmark was fixed rather than the normal vague "it's fixed and there's a billion new animations, we rewrote it completely!"
 
Safer to assume online won't work with PC and only buy it if you're happy with single player. I try to do online once or twice per year and it never seems to do anything.
 
I'm enjoying it a lot so far. All the new isolation stuff using the right stick and shooting with X is going to take some getting used to, though. Having some trouble with that since I played so much of 2K12.

I like that athleticism is back to being important. Fast players are fast! In 2K12 it seemed like everyone could stay in front of everyone. Or if you had a fastbreak with Lebron, he could easily be chased down by someone like Kendrick Perkins.

All that seems fixed. Managed to get out on a few fast breaks now with Lebron and he was way too fast to be chased down. Same with Westbrook. And when you're trying to take someone off the dribble, the matchup actually matters. With Westbrook, if I really wanted to, I could get past Chalmers, but when they started bringing Lebron or Wade to help after I scored like 6 straight it was a lot harder. Or when I ran a pick & roll with Lebron and Bosh, got Perkins on me after they switched, and just blew past him and got to the rim.

Same goes for size and strength of your defender. All that is actually taken into account here. In 2K12, it was basically "are you open or not?". If a defender was near you when you shot, you were most likely going to miss, no matter what the situation. Much better now. Using the Thunder, I managed to get Lebron to switch off Durant a few times with the pick & roll and was able to shoot over the top of Chalmers and Wade. Even if they were defending me pretty well, Durant was just too tall. And then with Lebron, I was using his strength in the post. Was able to post up Durant like three straight times before CPU started doubling me on the block.

CPU A.I. is so much better. No more sitting around for 22 seconds before they pull some cheesy impossible shot out of their ass. Westbrook pushes the break a lot, CPU will get into an offensive set at the beginning of the shot clock, players take midrange jumpers if they have room as opposed to forcing it inside, pop 3's if you give them some space, etc.

Lastly, the pick & roll is infinitely better than last year. Rest of the team actually gives you some space, and screener is much more valuable. Big guys at least like Bosh and Perkins set more effective screens and actually try to get open. Had Bosh roll out for a few nice elbow jumpers and hit Perkins for a few layups (though he's kinda slow so they were able to rotate over to him a few times). And it seems like big guys like Perkins can lay dudes the fuck out. Straight up demolished Chalmers one time when I was running it with Westbrook. He fell and everything when I ran him into one hard.

All in all, pretty good. If I'm remembering correctly, they have an all new physics system for this year? I think you can definitely tell the difference. Not as many lengthy animations where you feel like you're getting sucked into the defense any time something happens. Feels like just natural collisions and without said lengthy animations the overall pace is quicker which is a good thing.
 
DId they take out ingame playcalling ?(defense and offense) or is it just because its a demo ?

Also I could do in-game subs ?
 
it feels really flooaty to me, like the players don't have a weight to them. and them the dribbling up the court animation is ... uncomfortable >_>
 
Clint Beastwood said:
the only reason to play it is to get accustomed to the new controls
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Absolutely true of all sports demos. The code is usually several months old and sports games get tweaked so much that how the demo plays is almost never how the final product plays. Sometimes it even goes backwards, like Madden (the demo is much more fun than the final product).


So get used to the controls, but remember that the AI is designed to let you win and feel awesome (as it is in most demos) and just about everything you are seeing has surely been tweaked for better or worse since this demo.
 
kitsuneyo said:
How much fun are these games in single player and online with randoms? I would like to get it but I don't have any basketball-loving friends.
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I usually spend about 100-200 hours on NBA2K each year throughout the various offline modes. (Association, MyPlayer, Create-a-legend)
 
mhi said:
DId they take out ingame playcalling ?(defense and offense) or is it just because its a demo ?

Also I could do in-game subs ?
Click to expand...
Still in the game, just removed for the demo (not sure why they do this to be honest).

kitsuneyo said:
How much fun are these games in single player and online with randoms? I would like to get it but I don't have any basketball-loving friends.
Click to expand...
I don't really play online, but the single-player is great. I've been playing it fairly consistently since last October because of My Player. It's basically a basketball RPG, pretty addicting.
 
Played several games now and I have to disagree with the OP on one point. Played against the CPU and several people online. With hard D from KD I was able o shut LBJ down pretty good. Most he scored on me was 4. Granted its only a single quarter but he didn't seem too highly rated.
 
Fjordson said:
I'm enjoying it a lot so far. All the new isolation stuff using the right stick and shooting with X is going to take some getting used to, though. Having some trouble with that since I played so much of 2K12.
Click to expand...

I thought the original control interviews mentioned holding the trigger to turn the right stick back into a shot stick.


ThirtyPlus said:
I usually spend about 100-200 hours on NBA2K each year throughout the various offline modes. (Association, MyPlayer, Create-a-legend)
Click to expand...

Same here.
 
So you have to dribble with right stick and shoot/layup/dunk with X now right?

I will buy this, and be pissed the online still sucks like every other iteration. I never learn.
 
Riggs said:
So you have to dribble with right stick and shoot/layup/dunk with X now right?

I will buy this, and be pissed the online still sucks like every other iteration. I never learn.
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Sounds like it, I actually liked that better in the old Live games to dribble with the right stick, felt more intuitive.
 
The demo is such a bad cut of the game. 2K never puts out a meaty demo, though. Also, I hate the broadcast camera angle.
 
Controls trailer: http://youtu.be/IvIMBw-H2rQ

Mike Wang says this on OS:
just fyi... some of the controls are incorrect in this trailer:

Bounce Pass = LT+A
Behind the Back = RS away from hoop

As for shots, the trailer just shows how to execute some of the new shots with the face buttons. Shot Stick controls are completely different. For example:

Hop Step Layup = LT+Double Tap RS left or right
Euro Step Layup = LT+Throw RS one way then back the other
Click to expand...
 
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